Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-07-12
VISION OF A NIGHT.
ANNA RANDALL DlEHL TELLS A
STRANGE, WEIRD STORY.

RSvoaled-'The Music OF the Spheres"
Especial Correspondence
NEW York, July4
I had advertised in a London paper for
board, and was settled for the summer in a
great rambling house just in the outskirts of
q pretty but quaint old town. had parlor,
q coy study, where my meals were also
served, and bedroom. The apartments were
suited to my wants and quite according to
my taste. There was q vine covered porch
where swung my hammock. Here, too, in
a corner shaded by clustering leaves was a
little table where wrote on pleasant days.
One afternoon while sitting there watched
humming bird as it fitted from branch to
branch, when voices reached my ear, and I
listened, almost unaware. ~And does the
lady occupy the haunted roomsp said one.
ayes, she does not know the tales, and may
not have been disturbed as yet, but she will
bear the voices some time, and then our poor
landladys rooms will again be vacant"
"Tell me the story, said the first speaker. II
have never heard It in detail, though from
snatches gathered here and there am ia
miliar with the general outline"
And this was the substance Of the narrative
Iheard. Long ago, when the house was new,
young couple, lately married, were its occu-
pants and owners.
The lady was beautiful, though she had
great sad eyes, and did not seem happy. Hsr
husband was man Of wealth, intelligence,
and Of good birth, but morose in manner
and unpopular in the neighborhood.
How the marriage had come about no one
could tell; it was apparently only union in
name as far as the husband was concerned,
though the lady seemed to love this man of
ice with strange and almost worshipful de-
votion.
A child at last came into this inharmoniou
household, and for time its presence seemed
to develop almost o human affection in the
fathers heart.
But there were stories told by servants of
their masters harshness to his gentle wife.
and these the gossips caught and told with
additions of their own.
Three or four years passed on, when the
country was suddenly startled by the sudden
death of the lady, and after the funeral was
over there were hints that all was not well.
The family physician, however, who had
been called in jtfst in time to see his patient
breathe her last, told plausible story, which
displayed much medical profundity that the
country people could not understand, and SO
they were COMPOUNDED into silence.
Not many months had passed, when the
grass ofsprng had grown about the grave
and the violets were filling the air with
fragrance, the house became vacant.
The agent who was intrusted with the sale
OF the place was directed to send all letters to
he owner to q certain address in London,
and nothing moro was known.
1t might have BEEN the varying sound of
the wind, but it was affirmed that there were
human voices heard at night in the empty
house; mans tones, metallic and unfeeling,
woman's pleading voice mingled with sobs,
and the prattle Of a little child.
And SO as these reports were current, year
after year the house stood vacant, until at
last was found q tenant, boarding house
keeper, who was willing to face the SUPER
natural terrors VI lie l.ace III view or having
little rent TO pay.
The story ended, knew that must be
the lady mentioned who occupied the haunted
rooms No manifestations had been made to
me, and was not given to superstitious fears.
But the thread Of my writing had been snap
ped asunder, and wishing to dismiss the
story from my mind, stretched myself in
the hammock and was soon lost in a fascinat
ing book, the gift of a friend, and which the
morning mail had brought me.
***
mad lodged IN the rooms month, and
had never heard unusual sounds or seen any,
thing to rouse my fears, but the night follow
ing that very day, as II to make the words
bad overheard come true, had a vision.
I awoke suddenly to find standing in the
middle Of my room a tall figure. As the
moonbeams came family through the vines
and entered the windows, I saw a beautiful
woman clad in flowing white. In the hollow
of one hand she held something like vestal
lamp, which burned with a pale blue flame,
and with the other she beckoned me to fol-
low her. with a strange magnetism which 1
found impossible to resist.
obeyed hesitatingly. I had locked
and bolted my door when went to bed, but
it now opened without touch at our an
proach, and closed when we had passed out
side
My guide went on before, while followed
as she led, and with the same gliding move
ment as her own, in which there was no
measured tread or use of feet Out under
the stars we went, and as looked up to the
vault above seemed under her guidance TO
fathom the mysteries of the armament. to
see what could not be discovered by the nat.
ural eye even though gazing through the
mightiest telescope, and while was wrapped